Things I am doing this weekend:

Today is my Friday and I have a four day weekend due to a holiday off tonight for Memorial Day. I am excited for the extra day even though we are not doing anything special. These are some of the things I hope to get done.

I have been wanting to put a coat rack by our door for awhile and this one is perfect. All I have to do is find a wallpaper/wrapping paper that I love and go to town! If you also love this you can find the complete DIY directions here at

Design Sponge.

I am going to make this meal for Brian tonight as a celebratory dinner for his new job. He loves my lasagna and I haven't made it in awhile so he requested it. I will try to post my recipe and take pictures.

He also loves mint chocolate chip ice cream cake so if I am feeling extra motivated I might try and make him a homemade one.


We are also hoping to do this (if the weather is nice):

and maybe a little hiking in the Bridger mountains!

I am so proud!

I couldn't decide what to title this post it was either the above or Reasons Why I am Happy. BUT the main reason why I am happy is because I am so proud of Brian. He got a permanent full-time job with his fire department! It is so exciting to see him work hard for something and get it.

Brian getting this job means a lot for us. It means we will be staying in Bozeman for the foreseeable future. It means some relief in the financial area and a light at the end of the tunnel to get our debt paid off. It also means that we will be buying a house in the next couple of years. AND...maybe...having a BABY!! That is exciting. I am not sure if we are ready quite yet to start trying but it feels good to know that when the time comes we will be financially prepared.

Possibly have graduated from the honeymoon stage...

I think that we have officially graduated from the honeymoon stage. I can't decide whether it is that we have been together longer now or it is a stage that all newlyweds go through. The past couple of weeks Brian and I have been pretty disconnected from each other. Every time we get busy and don't get a chance to spend some quality time together and reconnect this happens but it is for more like a couple of days not what seems like weeks.

It is a sort of scary place to be and it is hard to admit sorta out loud! I have never felt before that every phone conversation with any person triggers some sort of annoyance. But that is what it has been like off and on for a couple of weeks. Some factors that are contributing to it:

• My constant lack of sleep and crazy schedule.
• Brian's difficulty with including me/communicating what is going on at work and in general.
• Brian's new command schedule with keeps him committed 7am-7pm Mon-Fri.
• My friend's temporary separation with her husband (she is also the first good friend that I have had since being with Brian, so also adjusting to hanging out with someone else besides him.)

I think that all of these have made me need him to make an extra effort to show me how he feels (which sounds lame and insecure). We have hit that point where our feelings aren't so new and fresh so we both aren't going the extra mile. I know that it has been awhile since I have gone out of my way to put on a piece of lingerie!

This weekend, even though I was gone for a bachelorette party I think that we really did connect much better. When I got home from Billings on Sunday afternoon, Brian admitted that he had felt that we hadn't really been connecting lately. Just hearing him say that meant the world to me. It shows to me that he is in tune with us and can feel the same things I can, even if he doesn't show it as much as I do. Then we went for a walk and cooked dinner together. It was the perfect Sunday night at home, no distractions just him and I. It helped me to remember why I love him so much. He really is an amazing and loving man! This whole thing has been a good reminder to both of us that a relationship is something that does not always come easily but takes work and it is hard work at times! It is totally worth it though!

Hooligans

This past weekend Brian and I house-sat/baby-sat for my 3 favorite hooligans! We showed up at their house on Sunday morning at 4:30 AM so their parents could catch an early morning flight and stayed until I dropped hooligans 2 & 3 off at Grandma's on Monday morning around 9AM. Lets just say that it was a long and fun 24 hours.

On Sunday morning Brian and I went back to sleep as soon as the parents left. Once the kids woke up I got up and made pancakes for them while Brian continued to sleep...little stinker! I watch the hooligans once a week, and last year actually baby-sat a lot for a couple of different families. I always try to take the kids out to the fire station and let them crawl around in the truck and even go for rides (hey it is one special thing I can offer!) On Sunday morning Brian took the kids for a ride and even let hooligan 1 who is six sit in the front seat. Her eyes were so huge with excitement, it was making us laugh pretty hard.

Later in the day we took the kids to a movie and ice cream. With my crazy schedule I hadn't gotten a chance to sleep more that 4-5 hours at a time in the last couple of days so I was tired and the kids were obviously bouncing off the walls. Brian grilled burgers for dinner and then I bathed the kids and put them to bed.

The next morning I got up and got all the hooligans up, feed, ready, and off to school/grandmas.

We learned a couple of lessons in those 24 hours:
1.) Water bottles without spill proof lids are never a good idea in the car!
2.) If you say we can have ice cream later...you have to have ice cream later.
3.) No matter how much you think you won't, you will be that parent who sends your kid to school with wet tennis shoes because they were left out in the rain and said child refuses to wear anything else.
4.) Having three kids, a dog, rabbit and two tubs of baby chickens is A LOT of work!

Our 24 hour stint with the hooligans was exhausting but we enjoyed every moment and really can't wait until we have started our own family!

Catching Up: April

It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted. I will give a short update on a couple of the last weekends and post some pics along with it!

We went to LA for a college roommates wedding April 3rd-7th. A college roommate of mine came with us. I had a blast reconnecting with her and also watching her and Brian get to know each other better. We went to Santa Monica one afternoon and then had dinner in Larchmont Village, which is just a couple of blocks from my grandparents house where we stayed. Between beers, margaritas and wine we were all pretty lit by the time we got back to the house. The wedding was beautiful, it was great to see Candy and her now husband again! On the way back we dropped Rachel off at the airport so that she could fly to Indianapolis and Brian and I drove to Vegas and stayed the night. We enjoyed Vegas for the night. Brian took me out to a very nice dinner at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant at the Venetian and then we went to see the Phantom of the Opera. We decided that we would probably never actually go to Vegas on vacation, there was just to many people and Brian thought that it was "fake."

The next weekend was Easter so we went down to Gardiner on Saturday night and then to church on Sunday morning. It was nice to see everyone from church. It has been kind of hard going to church lately since it has been so long...I definitely feel very guilty (but that is a whole different post!) It was nice to see my parents and Bobbie and Addison. My mom made her delicious Easter brunch, and sent us home with left-overs!

April 17th-19th we went to Spokane, WA so that Brian could take a written test for the Spokane Valley Fire Department. We were hoping that if the permanent job with Rae and Sourdough fire departments falls through then this would be a good second option. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it will work out. We stayed the whole weekend at Angela's mom house (Angela came with us.) I enjoyed being back in Spokane. I really love that city. It is so pretty with all of the huge pine trees and rolling hills. I got to have my first (out of many I suspect) excursions to Cabellas. Good thing I like camping and fishing! We got a little raft, a pair of waiters for me, a fishing pole stand, an axe, and a water container for camping. I couldn't believe that Brian spent the money, it was fun watching him shop since he usually is pretty restrained!

The last full weekend of April we just hung out at home. It was a very busy month and we definitely needed the downtime. I had fun traveling around and getting out of Bozeman a little. It helped to cure the major cabin fever that I was feeling.

Hollywood Here We Come!

Brian and I along with one of my best freinds from college are leaving to drive to Los Angeles tomorrow night for a wedding. I am really excited. It is going to be a crazy weekend. We are leaving Tomorrow at 10pm and getting back Tuesday around the same time. The drive is 17 hours long and we are doing it straight through on the way there. On the way back Brian and I are spending Monday night in Vegas, woo hoo! I have wanted to go and see the Phantom of the Opera in Vegas since I heard that they were permanently going to have it, so we are going to do that.

While we are in LA we will attend a bachelorette party, have Dim Sum with my grandparents, go to a wedding and hopefully do a couple of other awesome things! We are staying with my grandparents, which I am excited about. Their house is one that I have always loved and now Brian gets to see it.

I will try to post pictures and stuff of the road trip even though I have not been that good about blogging!